Keep hurting myself (stripping)

How do you guys take care of yourselves enough to not constantly be hurt? I've been stripping/hold washing part time for 3 months and have hurt my back and now forearm from washing and using the ascender, respectively. Is this job just a constant struggle to recover before the next shift, or does it get better after doing it for long enough? Right now I feel like I spend the rest of my week limiting my activity to recover enough to do my job, and I really don't want to continue if it doesn't get much better than this.